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Gaza Emergency

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Gaza Emergency

17 February – 24 February | issue 81 26 February marks six months since the ceasefire. It is also now four months since donors pledged millions of dollars for Gaza’s reconstruction. Virtually none of this has materialized. Due to lack of funds, UNRWA in January 2015 was forced to suspend its cash assistance programme supporting repairs and providing rental subsidies to Palestine refugee families in Gaza. According to the initial Agency’s assessment concluded in December, 96,000 Palestine refugee dwellings were damaged or destroyed during last summer’s conflict. More than US$ 720 million are...

For 11-year-old Waed Yasin, a Palestine refugee from the Gaza Strip, life has never been simple. Waed has witnessed three wars in the past seven years and knows that every portion of food or item of clothing must be shared evenly between her and her nine siblings.

UNRWA is piloting a new social enterprise, the Gaza Gateway, as part of an ongoing commitment to enhancing employment prospects for young Palestine refugees in Gaza. The initiative is designed to help young IT graduates gain work experience and employability training, and create new opportunities within the devastated Gaza economy. “It is like a survival kit. It changes your life and gives you a chance,” said Ahmed, a 27-year-old recent graduate working with the Gateway.

A rigorous hygiene campaign is playing a key role preventing any major disease outbreaks in Collective Centres, some eight months since displaced people first sought shelter from the July/August 2014...

17 February – 24 February | issue 81 26 February marks six months since the ceasefire. It is also now four months since donors pledged millions of dollars for Gaza’s reconstruction. Virtually none of...

Funding Requirements

The violent conflict in the Gaza Strip that began on 8 July has caused immense human suffering and devastation. The numbers of civilian fatalities, injuries and displacements, and the destruction of homes and other civilian infrastructure, are unprecedented. The emergency in Gaza is far from over.

As of 22 August, a quarter of the total Gaza population is internally displaced as a result of the hostilities. Approximately 300,000 are sheltered in 85 UNRWA schools, 45,000 are hosted in non-UNRWA premises, and at least 137,400 more are in other hosting arrangements. With the summer 2014 hostilities in their seventh week, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) seeking refuge in UNRWA installations has reached levels never before seen in Gaza’s history. As hostilities persist and destruction continues, the number of Palestinians seeking shelter is expected to increase further, along with the humanitarian needs of the population, and consequently also the scope of UNRWA’s response. Additionally, it is evident from the level of destruction of housing that many among the displaced population will not be able to return home once the hostilities have ceased. The Agency has revised–yet again- the projections of assistance needed until the end of the year and the funding required to respond appropriately.

A total of US$ 295.4 million is necessary to enable UNRWA to provide assistance through the end September, within a revised scenario of up to 500,000 displaced people seeking assistance, 65 per cent of whom are expected to continue to take shelter in UNRWA schools.